Allergen-Free School Supplies and Toys

If you're able to buy your kids whatever crayons, paints, toys, etc you want to, I am soooooooo happy for you!  For many of us, it can be a nightmare.  Having to call or email companies to find out if a certain type of tape has latex, if their putty has gluten or wheat, if their crayons have been handled by someone wearing latex gloves, etc.

For instance, you're at home, wrapping a present for your daughter's birthday--your daughter who is deathly allergic to latex.  Then you run out of tape.  You need to go to the store anyway, so you head out  to get some.  Once at the store in front of the tape, you realize that you forgot to write down the brand you bought last time--the one brand that you already found out was latex-free.  So you call your hubby at home and ask him what brand it was.  Only, he already threw away the empty dispenser you so rudely left in the middle of the floor, took it outside, and the garbage truck has already come.  You call the 1-800 numbers listed on several tape packages, and they all say they'll speak with their "whatever-it-is" department and get back with you, may they please have your name and number, they'll call you back in 5-7 business days.

So you write down several brand names and head back home tapeless, but on a mission.  Once home, you get online and write e-mails to all the companies, asking if their tape is latex-free.  You try to be civil, even though you feel like telling them how idiotic it is to use such a highly allergic material in anything anyway.  They all write back a week later, asking for specific product names, numbers, colors, manufacturing date, and all of the other information you didn't write down from all of those packages.  So you go back to the store, write down everything, head back home, and e-mail all the information in.  They then write back a month later, just to tell you that all of their tapes contain latex, and they hope your pleased with their products, and they hope they can be of more service to you in the future.

Meanwhile, your daughter's birthday passed two weeks previous, and you eventually just threw the half-wrapped gift into a gift bag.

I recently heard about an awesome website, Discount School Supply.  On their site, you can actually look only at products that are free of specific allergens!  You can search based on gluten, dairy/casein, peanuts/treenuts, eggs, soy, and yes, latex.  They even have latex-free, regulation-sized footballs, basketballs, etc.  And the prices are great!!

No, they didn't ask me to advertise for them--they don't know who I am or that I'm even blogging about them.  I was just excited that someone actually took the time to make it easy to find safe products without jumping through hoops.  I thought this might help some of you out, too!

Cheesy Sausage and Rice -- Gluten-Free!!

Ok, I didn't know exactly what to call this recipe, but it is DELICIOUS!!  My youngest can't eat it because it's full of dairy ingredients, but my other gluten-free kids can!  It's pretty fast and easy to make.  (Sorry for the semi-blurry pictures.  My camera lens desperately needed a cleaning.  Future ones will be nice and sharp!)

Here's the recipe:

3 cups rice (measured dry)
8 oz cream cheese, cubed
2/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup butter, sliced
1/2 cup milk
1 cup pumpkin, canned or otherwise
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 lb browned sausage (andouille is my favorite!)

I know, I know.  At this point you're freaking out because this recipe has pumpkin in it.  Pumpkin mixed with cheese and cayenne pepper.  Because pumpkin's just supposed to be mixed with cinnamon and clove and baked in a crust and topped with whipped cream, right?  WRONG!!  Trust me.  While pumpkin pie is super-scrumptious, so is this!  The final result is not pumpkiny-tasting.  It's perfect.  Just be brave and try it--you won't be disappointed!!  And it's nearing that pumpkin time of year, so what better time to try this recipe?

Start by cooking your rice.  I use a rice cooker, and I LOVE it!!

When the rice is nearing the end of its cook, brown your sausage.  My absolute favorite in this recipe is Whole Foods' andouille sausage.  The combo of the cheesy sauce and the spiciness of the sausage is to die for!  Today I used a simple smoked sausage, because I got it on sale for super cheap.  If you're making this recipe gluten-free, make sure that your sausage is a gluten-free sausage.

Next, combine the cream cheese, butter, parmesan cheese, and milk in a saucepan.  Cook on low, stirring frequently, until everything's melted.  Stir in your pumpkin and cayenne until heated through.

Add the sausage, then stir in your rice.

That's it!  You're done!  All you have left is to eat and enjoy!

Allergic Reactions

I've been asked what my kids allergic reactions look like.  Well, it really varies based on what they're exposed to.  Some rashes are super-obvious.  Some you can barely see, but it makes their skin feel like sandpaper.  Some you know what causes them, others could become a gameshow called "Name that Bump."

My oldest daughter's first rashes were so long ago that I don't have any good pictures of them--we didn't have a good camera then.  But here she is with hives after taking amoxicillin (which I am also allergic to).

Her entire body looked like this, including the soles of her feet and her face.  And they itched horribly.

This is a rash my Little Love #4 had recently.  We're pretty sure it came from clothes--you can see it follows the waistband line of his pants and then his shirt.  What I think caused it was this:  My sister-in-law had given me a big bag of hand-me-downs.  She uses Tide detergent, which is the absolute worst about leaving chemical residue in clothes.  I washed those twice in Charlie's Soap (which is, in my opinion, some of the best stuff on the market.  I don't use anything else in my house or for my family).  Charlie's actually pulls chemical residue out of clothes, but it takes several washes--especially for Tide.  Anyway, my theory is that there was enough Tide residue in my washing machine that when I washed a load of clothes with my son's clothes in it next, some of the Tide got into his clothes.  When he wore the clothes, this is what happened:

If you go to the tab about latex allergy, you can see pictures of the hives my youngest gets from latex, as well as the rash left on her face from certain foods.  She also can get hives if we eat certain foods, even if she's never eaten them before.  Mangoes are no longer allowed in our house.  She's never eaten them, but if anybody else in the house eats them--even if we follow up with vigorous handwashing and toothbrushing--she gets hives.

These are just a few of the examples we've seen over time.  The reactions are getting fewer and farther between as we learn what the triggers are and how to avoid them.  Sometimes it takes a lot of detective work, and sometimes we never figure out what caused a reaction at all.  Each episode is a learning process.

Have any of you learned tricks and methods to deal with allergies in your house?  Do you substitute certain foods in recipes?  Is there an everyday product you make rather than buy?  Please share!

Buckwheat Pancakes

We have several food allergies and intolerances in our family.  Two of our children are gluten-intolerant, and one is allergic to dairy and tapioca, among other things.  This means that some people can eat whole wheat bread, and some can eat gluten-free bread but our youngest can't eat either (anybody have any gluten-free bread recipes that don't use tapioca in them?).

I found a buckwheat pancake recipe and with a few substitutions made them safe for the whole family.  They're delicious!!  We typically quadruple the following recipe and freeze some of the pancakes to make peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches later on.

Buckwheat flour can be a bit pricey sometimes.  We buy organic hulled buckwheat groats in bulk once a year from a local co-op and grind them ourselves.  Here are what buckwheat groats look like.

This year we bought 50 pounds.  I'm thinking that next year we may have to do 100.

We just use a simple hand mill, purchased for around $60 online.  It works great for us, has stainless steel parts, and comes completely apart for cleaning.  It's so easy to use, even my kids can help grind (and they love to do it!).  It takes longer than electric mills, but the price was right!

Here's the original recipe and our substitutions:

2 cups buckwheat flour

2 t baking powder (gluten-free is necessary for us)

4 T sugar (we use turbinado--yum!)

1 t salt

2 eggs, beaten

2 c milk (I typically do 1 cup almond or rice milk and 1 cup water)

4 T melted butter (We do just under 4 T of applesauce instead)

splash of vanilla

Enjoy!!